Shizukana Shisha
Shizukana Shisha (使者 静かな, Shisha Shizukana lit. "Tranquil Emissary") is Shinigami who is associated with the Royal Guard and holds the title "Messenger From The Dragon's Palace" (竜宮の使い, Ryūgū-no-tsukai). Due to her lack of official education, authorities do not recognize her as a Shinigami. Even so, she is a capable warrior in her own rights. As a testimony of her strength, she has been assigned to protect His Highness Momosuke, a member of the Royal Family. However, as indicated by her title, her primary role is the one of an emissary. Since the isolated Ryūgū-jō is located on the very edge of the Royal Dimension, an individual who can provide contact with the rest of dimension is almost a necessity. Being the highest ranking servant subservient to the part of the Royal Family inhabiting the palace, Shizukana is a natural figure of authority. When she isn't carrying out her duties as messenger, she usually supervises the servants, which is actually most of the time. As a majority of the staff are lazy aristocrats, things tend to move quite slowly whenever she is absent. Therefore His Highness Momosuke has granted her the ancient artifact Ryūi (龍衣, Dragon Robe), which enables her to manipulate electricity and increases the speed of flight. Due to the fact that Momosuke messages other aristocrats frequently, Shizukana's presence has started to irritate the Royal Guard, particularly because she is permitted to enter and leave their cities as she pleases. Seeing as she serves directly beneath a member of the Royal Family, no one dares to express their discontent towards her. Her appearance often seem to bring forth ambivalent feelings, as she sometimes invite those who are deemed worthy by Momosuke to live in the Ryūgū-jō. Other times, she just reprimands the residents for being too selfish. Most of the invited aristocrats end up working as servants for the residents, which are members of the Royal Family. Appearance Shizukana is a woman of a fairly youthful appearance who appears to be in the middle of her twenties, as she possesses soft and somewhat childish facial features, but she distinctly has an adult body and a bust of considerate size. Most noticeable of her facial features, are her expressive, maroon-colored eyes. The volume of her eyes further enhance the perception of her childlike face. Her hair is colored violet with darker patches of byzantium; cut short into a style reminiscent of a bob, though it is of slightly more unruly quality. Parts of her bangs are kept behind her ears, leaving a single fringe hanging down between her eyes. Shizukana is scarcely observed without her black pork pie hat, which is adorned by a red ribbon on the front. The full length of the ribbon is unknown, but due to the excess material which has been used, the ends of the ribbon extend behind the hat itself. As for her clothing, Shizukana only wears a specific attire at all times. This special attire was given to her by her master, Momosuke, and is referred to as the Ryūi. When she wears the clothing, it takes on the appearance of three distinguishable pieces of clothing; a blouse and a skirt. The blouse is plain white in terms of color and the sleeves are poofy with red bands around the wrists. Noticeably, the blouse has a total of three layers. The two upper layers cover her breasts and the first layer is somewhat shorter than the second. Both of these layers end with red frills. In general, the layers give the blouse a poncho-esque appearance. Her lower body is covered by a plain black skirt which reaches her ankles and also have red frills around the hemline. Around her neck she wears a feminine variation of the bow tie. The most peculiar feature of the Ryūi, is in fact the sash that always floats around the wearer. The sash has the same color scheme as her blouse; the material itself is white and both ends have a fin-like line of materials moving alongside it. All in all, her appearance does resemble an oarfish. Personality Shizukana is seemingly a calm individual used to being in control. Since she is the emissary of the Ryūgū-jō, as well as the former head maid, this is to a certain extent true. She is not prone to emotional outbursts, which is a considerable feat, since she is basically the only one who does anything whenever she is home in the palace. While she does indeed fell frustration because of the lazy servants, Shizukana never expresses her anger. Instead, she usually only threatens to kill the servants or physically disciplines them. These are not just empty words either, as she has followed through some of threats, in the most severe cases at least. This method of punishment is believed to have originated from her former masters, an unidentified noble clan in Seireitei which is now extinct. Some of the servants has gone as far as calling her "a damaged person", because of the way she smile sweetly while handing out death threats. It may appear as if she has certain psychological traumas, since she is obsessed with completing her duties as quickly as possible. It would appear as if she has certain sociopathic tendencies as well, since Shizukana always places the task at hand over the well-being of the participants, including herself. Despite being a brutal leader, Shizukana is relatively polite and verbose. She seldom treats equals with disrespect; even her enemies are according to herself being worthy of flattery. Especially since she has not left the Soul King Palace in at least 200 years and most of her acquaintances are aristocrats or members of the Royal Guard. In other words, worthy residents of the Soul King Palace. Because of her somewhat archaic and formal language, it is assumed that Shizukana is very old, perhaps bordering to ancient. But she has yet to confirm or deny these claims herself. It has been implied that her blood is of a lower status than even the lowest servant of Momosuke and she therefore refers to even the butlers, the least beneficial position among the servants of Ryūgū-jō, with respect. Sometimes, however, her politeness may be interpreted as mocking and sarcastic. In certain situations, the mockery is intended, but it is often ambiguous or unintentional in other cases. Since she has been serving aristocrats for large amounts of her life, Shizukana has picked up a plethora of words belonging to their vocabulary. In fact, the very specified, contextual language she speaks has ostracized her from regular servants. Although she is often quite serious and focused, Shizukana has a more relaxed and free-spirited side to her. This side does usually, however, require loads of effort to bring forth. Unless someone can play flamenco music, which she adores. She has loved music and dance through her entire life, but never really quite understood or the concept of kabuki-theaters. It appears as if she favors musical pieces with higher tempos over traditional Japanese music, as they are far easier to dance to. Ironically enough, Shizukana lacks any form of rhythm and her dances rarely match the music. Her manner of dancing is strangely reminiscent of the dancing moves originating in the seventies. Another manner of loosening her up, is by forcing her to drink alcohol. Due to her responsible nature, she never drinks when there is a task at hand. Since there is usually an endless line of tasks to do for her, there is not much time to drink. But if she ever manages to finish everything she was supposed to do, Shizukana has a tendency to procrastinate until Momosuke wants her to deliver a message. She appears to be somewhat of a slob, as she never cleans up herself, but forces the other servants to do so. In fact, Shizukana is almost as messy as Momosuke himself is. Her favorite food is okayu, Japanese rice gruel, while her least favorite is sushi. History Little is known about Shizukana's past, including her age. It appears as if she never existed prior to being recruited by Momosuke's previous emissary. Even the clan she served has disappeared from the surface of the earth. It has been implied that Shizukana has been present at least since the Heian period. Plot Equipment Ryūi (龍衣, Dragon Robe): is an ancient piece of clothing which Shizukana wears at all times. This peculiar piece of clothing was crafted almost a millennium ago by the master craftsman who went under the pseudonym Ryūichi and has since been in the possession of the Royal Family residing in the palace. The dress is infused with super-reishi of special properties and contains an unidentifiable relic inside as well. While it may just appear like regular piece of clothing, the Ryūi is in fact quite unique. The robe has a will of its own and decides whether a person is worthy of bearing it or not. If it decides that the bearer is not worthy, the Ryūi will promptly strangle said person. It also has no default appearance and will manifest itself as pieces of clothing reflecting the bearers taste and style. In a sense, the robe has a symbiotic relationship with the wearer. It provides the wearer a prolonged life, protection, weapons and enhanced agility in exchange for reiryoku, which it stores inside itself. If the wearer ever takes the dress off after prolonged usage, he/she will die immediately, as the dress has essentially become a part of their bodies, with importance comparable to the heart and the brain. While it does appear to be as delicate as regular clothing, the robe is in fact quite sturdy and is in fact comparable to the Arrancars' Hierrotoa certain degree. But if the dress is to be damaged at all, it will simply use the reiryoku of the wearer to recreate the lost parts. The manner the robe handled Shizukana, is said to be somewhat different from how it handled her predecessors. Instead of becoming a single fabric, it became three entirely different garments of clothing. While the robe usually creates more conventional weapons, it does occasionally creature quite unorthodox ones as well. The sash which floats around Shizukana is in reality a dangerous weapon. It has the ability extend and shorten indefinitely, as well as the ability to move at high speeds through the air. The sash is controlled through telepathic means and Shizukana rarely have to life a finger while in battle. *'Doresu Duriru' (ドレスドリル, Dress Drill): By allowing the sash to surround her right hand, Shizukana can create a dangerous weapon similar to a drill in appearance. Since she can control the Ryūi with mere thoughts, she can easily manage to spin it like a drill at high speeds. As the wearer of robe is also capable of controlling the density of the cloth, the drill can become about as solid as a Zanpakutō. The drill's constant spinning grants it an immense penetration power, rendering most defenses useless. While it is indeed fast, the drill is noted to be incapable of leaving Shizukana's hand and taking into account that she is only capable of speeding up one part of the clothing at the time, the drill has a rather limited range. Because it is infused with her reiryoku, sparks tend to fly from it occasionally. *'Keitai Sentō: Yari no Sakana' (形態戦闘：槍の魚, Combat Embodiment: Fish of Lances): is the name of one of the special forms the Ryūi can take whenever it feels that the life of its owner is threatened. By mastering the Ryūi, the wearer can gain the ability to force it into a battle form. The Ryūi has several forms which are better suit for combat than its original one, but they all depend on the wearers preferences and skills. This one is exclusive to Shizukana and she has mastered it to an extent where it can be activated by mere verbal commands, similar to a Zanpakutō. Its release command is "Pluck" (毟る, Mushiru) and upon releasing, a field of electricity envelops Shizukana, which is in fact dangerous on its own. Upon finishing the transformation, the field implodes, revealing the fully transformed Shizukana. The hat she used to wear has been replaced with a black and red visor with three ribbons on each side and eight lines running down the front. Her shoulders are covered by a pair of white pauldrons with red ornaments which are attached to a red belt beneath her breasts. Both of her arms are also wrapped in belts, which in turn are strapped to the belt underneath her breasts. Located above her breasts is a flat, purple, roughly diamond-shaped gem. Underneath her armor, Shizukana wears a dress which has a white upper body and back and a vertically striped lower front. The striped part starts beneath her chest, just about where the red belt is located. Even her right arm is completely draped in the dress. However, the dress ends abruptly around her elbow on the left side and then continues where the lower arm begins, giving it a glove-like appearance. In her left arm, she carries a red and white shield with several layers. In her right, Shizukana carries a short spear which is attached to her wrist. Both of these weapons are, in fact, the sash transformed, but are composed of a noticeably more rigid material. **'Immense Speed': While already deceptively fast, Keitai Sentō: Yari no Sakana grants Shizukana an even greater level of speed, making her mere movements flicker. The level of her speed is great enough to be compared to Shunpō, effectively nullifying her lack of mastery over the technique. She can easily close a huge gap between herself and her victim in the blink of an eye and strike with incredible velocity and precision. If she tries hard though, Shizukana is capable of creating a series of afterimages, which usually last for ten seconds. **'Enhanced Strength': Though only possessing average strength by nature, this new form grants Shizukana a level of strength far greater than what she initially possessed. As a testimony of her sheer power, she wields her spear with a single hand and has the capacity to deal severe damage in this form. **'Shiroi Bara: Rakuen' (白いバラ：楽園, White Rose: Paradise): While it may appear as if the spear is the main weapon in this form, it is in fact the shield which holds the majority of the offensive prowess. By holding the shield out in front of her, Shizukana may focus her reiryoku on this very single point. The shield will glow white as she states the name of the technique. A single, potent beam will shoot forth. It is somewhat similar to a Cero in terms of both appearance and power, but unlike the Cero, it lasts for a while and the direction may be changed while it is being aimed. In addition, it has a flavor effect of sparkling and being surrounded by white rose petals. **'Hiiro Bara: Jigoku' (緋色バラ：地獄, Scarlet Rose: Hell): Shizukana holds out her shield in front of her and states the name of the technique. It will start to glow a red color and will gain a strange surrounding reiatsu. If something comes in contact with the shield, it will catch fire and most likely suffer combustion in the matter of seconds. More resistant material, such as Zanpakutō or an Arrancar with Hierro activated, will most likely just suffer minor burns. There are two manners of cancelling the technique. The first method is employed through a period of gradual cooling. The reiryoku inside the shield is initially quite dense, but when it is spread it into other parts of the dress, the heat spreads as well. The other method is far simpler and less time consuming. By thrusting the shield forwards, a red circle of reiryoku can be unleashed. In this manner, the technique can be cancelled while inflicting damage. Therefore, the latter method is preferred by Shizukana. **'Sumizome no Bara: Tengokutodjigoku' (墨染のバラ：天国と地獄. Ink-black Rose: Of Paradise and Hell): A secret technique which has yet to be revealed. It somehow involves the color black. Powers and Abilities Despite the fact that she is not recognized as a Shinigami by the Royal Guard, Shizukana does share several traits with the regular Shinigami. She has developed an immense level of spiritual pressure, as well as discovered a new branch of Kidō. However, she has yet to manifest a Zanpakutō. This is the most important difference between her and regular Shinigami. Therefore, she is forced to solely rely on the Ryūi in combat. Immense Spiritual Power: Being at the very least thousand years old, Shizukana possesses a level of spiritual power which exceeds the one of an average Captain, even though it is considered to be raw and untamed. Its vast capabilities is evident by the way the Ryūi manifested; as three different garments of clothing instead of just one. Her spiritual power manifests as electric reiatsu whenever she feels like demonstrating it, but most importantly when overcome by strong emotions. Simply because of her reiatsu, people have theorized that if she would ever obtain a Zanpakutō, it would be represented by the element of electricity. Even so, she can quickly and quietly conceal her spiritual power, making sure that she is undetected. Trivia *Shizukana's theme song is Dancing Water Spray. *Her appearance is based on the Touhou-character Iku Nagae. *She has a fish motif, more specifically an oarfish-motif. Shizukana even shares her epithet with the Japanese name of the oarfish, but she also has some similarities with the electric eel. Category: SereneDreams Category: Female Category: Shinigami